Introduction to network automation

Network automation using Ansible is based on different connection methods. There are some differences between Ansible network automation compared to Linux/Unix and Microsoft Windows automation. Also, note that Ansible can be used to automate the existing network automation tools such as Cisco ACI using the available Cisco ACI modules (https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/scenario_guides/guide_aci.html).

Task execution on an Ansible control node

Previously, you learned that Ansible is built on top of Python, so a remote node must be installed with Python to execute the automation tasks (Microsoft Windows modules are written in PowerShell and a winrm connection must be set to use PowerShell modules). Unlike Linux/Microsoft Windows nodes, many network devices do not have Python and cannot run Python scripts. Hence, the network automation modules are processed and executed in the Ansible control node; all actual commands will be executed on the...